Macbeth: the importance of sleepMacbeth Sleep is a time when our mind is at rest and the subconscious comes out to play. Sleep is often considered the place where we are able to see into our future and perhaps figure out how to solve our problems. Sleep is also what heals and heals our mind and body. Without sleep we slowly begin to disintegrate. Mind and body no longer cooperate without the healing power that sleep brings. Shakespeare uses sleep as both a reward and a consequence in his plays. If a character is innocent and pure, he is granted a restful and fulfilling sleep. If the character lacks these traits of goodness, he is doomed to a life of insomnia and other problems. In Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, the reader can see this idea manifest itself in many different ways. From the beginning, when Macbeth hears the voice to the end of the play, when Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep, the reader sees many examples of this use of sleep. One first encounters the idea of ​​sleep in Macbeth when the central character, Macbeth, kills the sleeper. king. After the murder, Macbeth thinks he hears a voice cry out: "Sleep no more... Glamis has killed sleep, and so Cawdor will sleep no more, Macbeth will sleep no more" (II.ii.58-60)! At this point the reader does not give much thought to this warning, assuming that it is simply Macbeth's guilty conscience rather than anything important. But as signs of the voice's prophecy begin to surface like the symptoms of an illness, Macbeth slowly becomes irrational and ruthless. This is partly due to the, "terr... middle of paper... 'good' people changed dramatically after being denied sleep. King Duncan and his sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, were considered innocent in this comedy and for this reason they were allowed to sleep. Their sleep was a restorative, healing sleep that gave them clear judgment and, in the case of their children, the will to avenge the unjust death of their beloved father sleep unhindered. Innocence and purity in a Shakespearean play have rewards attached to them. If a character is good, he is granted a deep, peaceful, restful sleep. He is prevented from sleeping as a reminder and punishment for his wrongdoings, this, in turn, leads to a decline in his mental, emotional, and physical well-being, as evidenced in Macbeth by the plight of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth...